


amethyst

by aikotters



Series: precious gemstones [1]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Story Series | Digimon World Series, Digimon World Series
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Babies, Developing Friendships, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Family Feels, Gen, Hospitals, Politics, Secrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28395078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aikotters/pseuds/aikotters
Summary: Despite all of his weaknesses, all of his faults, Ichijouji Ken simply wants to help his family. To do that, he'll do anything, even hurt the kind creatures of another world, even attack the gods, even use his family. Even fight his friends, if need be. Even if it means he has to hurt them. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the beginning. The day his little sisters were born: Hikarigaoka exploded and his life changed forever A Pre-01 AU.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: precious gemstones [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079585
Kudos: 6





	1. When Night Passes Into Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reafterthought](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reafterthought/gifts).



> Additional Tags: Discussion of little siblings, hospitals in general, mentions of childbirth
> 
> Arc One - The Ichijouji Family and the Apartment Complex

Ichijouji Osamu, seven years old, was a smart boy.

He was very quiet, and often listened to more than he should, and did his work quickly enough that he wasn't lagging behind everyone else, but slow enough that people wouldn't realize how easy it was for him. His parents had an inkling of course, his bedroom was much more honest than he was, but with his little brother now sleeping in the bed underneath his, it was much easier to blend his real thoughts in with his brother's eager scribbles and happy basic work.

After all, if he could teach his brother all he knew, he would be less special, and would go peacefully unobserved.

Sitting in the maternity ward in Odaiba, he was succeeding at it. His brother slept on with his head on his brother's lap and his body curled up in his favorite blanket. The bench was cold, the hallways quietly lit, and people were moving with quick precision. The food they had brought was left untouched on the bench. Ken let out a soft snore that also went ignored. It was much too late to eat, in his opinion. Daddy would need it, so he could have it for mommy when they were done.

This too, went unspoken.

Just like him knowing that they hadn't _meant_ to leave him and his brother alone. Children were supposed to be supervised here, but it was so late at night, and there were a few expecting mothers today and something was happening in the hospitals across the way everywhere, it was probably all hands on deck. Which was frustrating but okay, he supposes.

"How are you holding up there, lad?"

Osamu blinked. A pale man was striding towards him, his scrubs slightly stained red, face wan, darkest blue locks tidily wrapped up and short. But his soft eyes barely shifted away, steady on him "Hello, sir," he greeted, lips inching upwards, ever slightly. "Can I help you with something?"

The man's lips quirked up ever so slightly. "Yes, lad, you can help me by telling me why on Earth you've been left alone with a little tot who looks much too young to trot."

 _He speaks funny,_ Osamu thought with a fuzzy warmth in his chest. Osamu rather liked it. "Daddy's in the room with mommy having our new baby sister." He paused. "I don't think it's supposed to take this long."

"It's taken all night and day before."

Osamu wrinkled his nose, to which the man smiled. "I have yet to check on this room however, but surely it can't be that much longer. Would you like to go to our resting area just in case? Or would you like some pillows and blankets instead?"

Osamu decided in that moment, quite rare for him, that he rather liked this soft man. He doesn't seem to look down on Osamu despite the fact that they're so young. He'd rather noticed Osamu in a rather pleasant way and he gives Osamu choices. His parents often don't. He may be young but he's noticed this Other children's parents do it too after all. "Pillows and blankets please," he says in his most proper voice. "Ken's asleep."

The man's smiling face shifts towards Ken, who is still snoring peacefully. "Very asleep," he agrees. "Speaking of having little siblings, having them awake is awful this late at night. Give me a moment."

Osamu nodded, and watched the man go. He reached out and smoothed the hair over Ken's face. The boy stirred a bit. "Nothing's happened yet," he told him. "Go back to sleep."

Ken scrunched his nose, the little boy could walk (clumsily) and talk (quite well) and look after himself but he wasn't a big boy like Osamu yet, he was only four. It would be better if he slept. "Mummy," he said in a bleary voice.

"Mommy's having a baby remember?" Osamu told him. They weren't too young to stay at home by themselves, but their mother, for some reason, had insisted on them coming. "She's over in the nursery." He was very proud of himself for having studied the whole time about it. He didn't know everything but he knew enough to tell Ken to calm down.

"Somethin's wrong with Mummy," his brother said, voice clear despite the way his eyes fluttered.

Osamu huffed. "She's fine Ken. She's a grown-up. Daddy's with her, she's fine." Sometimes his brother acted like he was a psychic. He was four. He was just a scaredy-cat.

"No," Ken insisted. "Sumthin's wrong!" He began to squirm but Osamu kept his hand firm on his brother's back. Otherwise he'd hit his head and hurt himself.

"There's nothing to be scared of," Osamu said back, trying to be calm and not let his breathing get faster, harder because what if he was right? Sometimes Ken did get it right and they always regretted not listening, but there were a bunch of doctors and nurses and everything! She had to be fine. And they couldn't do anything if she wasn't so… so there!

Ichijouji Osamu was a smart boy. He trusted his brain and studied everything he could. But all his knowledge in the world had not told him that nothing was perfect, that women still died in childbirth all the time. That medicine wasn't perfect and was still growing as a field. No one had told him that. He had not read it yet. So he didn't know that yet.

Ichijouji Ken did know it, but he knew it in the way you knew a storm was coming from the clouds and the wind that blew in strange directions. He knew it in the way his hair had prickled all night.

He knew it from the footsteps on another floor, in other wings, as person after person, child after child, were brought in by frantic parents and their fellow siblings, in stretchers and ambulances. From fire, from electricity, from rubble, from heart attacks, from so much and so little.

That was enough for someone like Ichijouji Ken, who had yet to trust his brain in the way Osamu did. He knew something was wrong, and his mother was not here. It was easy for him to put the two together, like it was easy for Osamu to cut him straws.

But just like Osamu, Ken was aware that he could not do anything. He was vividly, clearly aware of the small size of his hands, the stature of his body. The highness of his voice. The exhaustion he still had.

Even though he forgot much of this night, much of everything before it, Ichijouji Ken remembered this feeling, and carried it for years and years onward.

The nurse returned, his face still wearing that soft smile, warm as ever. "And the little one woke up I see. Is something the matter?" He set the pillows and blankets to the side of them and knelt to look into their eyes. Kind. Firm. Solemn.

Ken stared at the man, struck silent and dumb from the sheer surprise of an adult near an adult looking at him like he was memorizing his face. Like, to this grown-up, he existed.

There was a loud, sudden scream from the door next to them.

"Ah," the nurse said softly. "It will be starting soon." He adjusted his feet to better look at them. "My wife has just given birth. A healthy little girl, they tell me. My home will be very crowded. They won't let me go in of course, not while I'm on shift. But I get to walk her home and hold them while she sleeps. My brother-in-law had a baby girl last month. He's inconsolable. Though that might just be because he can't sleep." He regarded Ken with thought and care. "Do you know who your baby is going to be?"

"A girl," Ken said before he could stop himself and Osamu felt his lips twitch with pride at the man's delicately raised eyebrow. Then fear rose up again as he said. "Mister, could you check on our mommy? I think something's wrong."

The man's eyes widened slightly, but then narrowed in serious consideration. "Of course," he said, like it was silly to think he wouldn't. "This room here?"

Ken nodded, eagerly.

The nurse nodded after him. "Very well. But you both must eat. You'll need your strength, no matter what comes. Do you promise to try and eat?"

They nod. Osamu will do anything to see someone help and Ken was four so he was just hungry.

The man knocked on the door they were in, and disappeared inside just as their mother screamed again in pain. Ken squeezed his eyes shut and started to rock a bit against him.

Osamu hesitated then gently tapped his brother on the neck. "Promised we'd eat," he told him, listening to the door shut.

Ken nodded but didn't move. So Osamu went and did it himself.

For a moment, the hall was somewhat quiet as people moved in and out. Their mother's screams had turned to pitiful sounds of pain and Osamu wondered, wondered, does it always sound like that? Did it always sound that broken? That scary, that awful? That painful. He couldn't remember when Ken was born, but he thinks he was at home or with a neighbor.

Why did something so happy be so sad?

The nurse seemed to be in there for hours. In that time, they'd both eaten and curled themselves up in blankets, Ken teary-eyed, Osamu thinking and digging grooves into his palms from all the staying still. Then the door opened. The man's face was exhausted, but relieved. "Good news boys," he said to them, still looking them in the eyes. "Everyone's fine. You have two healthy little sisters."

"Two?" Ken hopped to his feet, as if they both hadn't started to doze before the door opened. "Mummy's okay?!"

The smile widened. "She is, lad, she is. Your father may need a new writing hand and a pair of eardrums, but that's not my department, so he'll have to ask someone else."

Ken let out a delighted giggle and something in Osamu's shoulders eased, relaxed, slowed. "Thank you sir," he said. "For everything. Thank you."

The man smiled pleasant as ever. "Of course lad, just doing my job as I do. Now they'll be moving your mother and father to another room while they let the babies rest. It's been a very tiring time for them. Would you like to come and see my child while you wait? I've asked your parents, and they agreed, or your mother did."

Osamu nodded without thinking. He'd seen Ken as a baby, sure, but someone else's baby would be nice and he thought his back was going to snap in two if he stayed there much longer.

Ken nodded. "You said you have a baby!"

"My wife does," the nurse agreed, offering his hand. Ken took it without hesitation, Osamu only seconds later. "I only started the process. And she's probably going to be furious with me for not getting her yet. She hates these sorts of places. But her brother's with her, they should be fine."

Osamu listened to Ken and the man chatter and glanced back at the room. Someone was leaving already, and for a moment his heart leapt.

It was daddy and daddy was looking at them. But there was no relieved smile, no great happiness. Instead he looked angry. Disappointed. In pain. Something else, twisting the frown he wore.

For a moment, Osamu considered running to him. But he stopped and joined his brother. His brother looked happy and with the knowledge their mommy was okay, right now, all Osamu wanted was to be _happy too._

* * *

"She's squishy," Ken told the woman in the bed, poking the newborn's cheek gently. Osamu's eyes went wide as the woman laughed.

"Babies are supposed to be squishy and fat, lad," the woman said, grinning wide, over the head of a different sleeping baby. "If they aren't, be concerned. You have to fatten them up more."

"She makes it sound like she's going to eat them," the nurse said and earned more laughter from the bedridden woman. She sure seemed healthy to Osamu. He wondered why they were keeping her there.

"I wouldn't dare, Draven. Not once."

Draven, the nurse, chuckled softly. "So she says."

The baby snuffled, clearly tuckered out. Osamu didn't blame the kid. Giving birth seemed painful, so being born must be exhausting. He watched Ken's eyes widen with more curiosity and more questions. And none of them seemed to mind answering them, even the couple who had seen them, nodded politely and left for home, tired themselves.

Osamu himself was starting to yawn, tired himself. But he had to stay awake. He knew the man had said they were okay but he wanted to be _sure._ He wouldn't be able to sleep until he saw his family for himself, he wouldn't! Not even upset dad.

Still he didn't mind listening and watching Ken, who was happily talking to the baby now. "What have you heard about outside?" the woman asked her husband to which Draven shook his head.

"The damage was terrible. If I hadn't been in the ward at the time, I probably would be over there now, it is becoming that desperate. That fire just managed to be put out. It's going to be a mad rush at least until tomorrow."

"They're saying it was terrorists." the woman snorted. "They would say that. Better than the alternative."

"Quite. Two children were right in the epicenter, you know. Just some scratches and bruises I heard." Draven shook his head. "The lie won't last forever."

"And we'll need to be ready for when it ends," the woman agreed, shutting her eyes. "Fetch me a sandwich, wouldn't you love? The vending machine will do."

He chuckled. "Of course love." He looked to the two boys. "Shall we check on your family?"

Osamu started from his eavesdropping as Ken eagerly moved to join them. Shaking his head, Osamu followed, bowing to the woman.

Of course, because he was in the back of the group, Osamu heard the woman say, to the baby or herself, he wasn't sure. "My husband really needs to stop wishing for the impossible to come true and yearn for things he can't have." She laughed. "But then, we wouldn't be here if he sought for things that were simply possible."

* * *

The family was together again. The family was all right. In fact they could even hold the babies. Ken after some adjusting, held one while leaned against his mother's arm. Gingerly of course, but Ken was always gentle. His eyes were sparkling with tears. Tears of love. So strange.

Osamu turned his head to the baby in his own arms. So small, so fragile. So warm. The purple eyes stared at him, blinking sometimes, burbling when they closed others. Like they were seeing something in him they wouldn't see in themselves.

Osamu exhaled hard and fast and thought of Ken, who clung and wheedled and pleaded and loved and-

Yes, he understood this feeling very well. He leaned against his mother's knee and cradled his sister. His eyes caught his father's who was somewhere far away, maybe to the west.

"Dear," their mother said to him. "Come here, I'm not that cross with you anymore, honest."

He jolted up from his train of thought. Then he laughed and obeyed. And for a moment they were six, a family of six and happy and safe. The children nestled against their father, the wife amused at him, and the husband forgetting the troubles of the world. They basked in it as if they knew.

This would be the last memorable time the six of them would be together.


	2. From Sunrise to Sunset

Ichijouji Ken, not for the first time in his four years of life, wished he was more like his brother. Usually it was because his brother could move better than he could, walk better, run faster, hold things better, say things clearer, was just plain old _older_. Today however, it was because his brother was sleeping through the screaming.

One of his baby sisters, not even a few days old, apparently had awful nightmares and when left alone, she would simply fall asleep and within an hour or so be woken up screaming and woken the other baby who just cried quietly like she was afraid to be a problem.

That's how daddy put it anyway. In Ken's opinion, being a baby sucked and screaming was the only way you could tell anyone.

It had been like this in the hospital too, but the nurses had fixed it faster. Or something. But they were home now.

Daddy, to Ken's eyes, seemed happy to be home. Happy to have everyone close by where he could look after them, happy everyone was there. If Ken didn't know and love his father, he'd think the man was _too_ happy. His father was always rather easy-going though if you listened to his brother, and he was a person who often found excuses to not do the dishes or bring work home. Rather than do it at work? Ken wasn't sure, but he rather preferred a happy daddy to the one that looked so sad at the hospital and left them alone.

Even if it _did_ come with a side of screaming babies.

Ken rolled over, huffy and teary-eyed at this point and getting ready to stomp over and see what was the problem _now_ , but abruptly the crying sound had gone quiet. And normally that'd be enough for Ken to try and go back to bed, but it happened so fast! That wasn't good, right?

So less stomping, more tiptoeing, he made his way to the recently cleaned up and noisy room. Inside was his mother, leaning over the left side crib. She, like Daddy, looked exhausted in a happy way. It didn't seem like a happy thing to be tired. He loved his sleep after all. But she looked down at that one with absolute joy. Like something was perfect.

"Did you look at me like that?" He asked. She turned, surprise warming her plump cheeks and laugh lines. Then her smile grew a bit bigger and she beckoned to him.

As he toddled over, she said, "Still do, Ken-chan."

His heart swelled and she picked him up to look at the crib.

Both his sisters were underneath a bright blue blanket each, eyes closed, deep asleep. He wished he was asleep, even with the tears dried there.

"There's the secret," she said lightly. "Keep them together and fewer tears overall."

Ken nodded, eagerly and sleepily, watching them breathe. He could kind of see what everyone liked now, once they were quiet they were cute. And they were family. They were his. If they could just stay this quiet, he'd be fine.

He closed his eyes, listening to his mother's soft humming and gentle breaths of the babies.

"Ken-chan?"

Annoyance trickled down his spine, but he didn't say so. This was his mom after all." Yeah?"

"Would you like to hold them?"

Ken blinked and turned this over. Fear tugged his heart. Sure they were tiny so they should be light and yeah they were already super loud but… "But they're so small. I'll drop them."

"You might but I'm here to help you catch them." Her voice wasn't steady exactly, there was a teeny shake, but he could tell she meant it, at least some of it.

This made Ken smile shyly and open his arms. His mother lifted one (he couldn't tell them apart yet!) and placed her in his arms, correcting him so her head was up and he could lean against the crib.

"Is this the crying one," he asked as his mother sat down beside him?

His mother laughed. "No, no, Mitsuki is the sweet one. Mirei here is a bit of a crier."

"How can you tell them apart already?" he demanded in a furious whisper as his bundle twitched her nose.

Mom winked at him. "Mama's intuition."

He squinted at her.

She giggled at him. "Mitsuki's hair is just a little darker."

Ken looked down with doubt. She didn't even really have hair! It was fuzz! She was fuzzy!

Still, she was quiet. And very cute. Listening to her breathe, Ken took a deep breath of his own and exhaled. "Is dad okay now?"

"He's your dad," his mother replied, ever gently, kindly. "Do you think so?"

Ken made a face. "I was asking you!"

She chuckled at him.

And Ken, due to being tired, leaned back and fell asleep before he could ask again. And he never got an answer.

But Ken was a smart boy, he figured things out for himself easily enough.

* * *

Everything fell into chaos very quickly.

Ken, in the shuffle of baby watching, noticed his father packing boxes. At first, he'd wanted to ask why, but the slump of the man's shoulders made him pause and wait. He probably wasn't okay just yet. Babies were stressful. And since _he_ was stressed by them, daddy had to be worse. And there'd be six of them here, he'd probably planned to get them something bigger so they could run around better. Or some stuff wasn't good for babies to touch?

Nii-san would say they couldn't afford it first and turn up his nose but Ken didn't know what that even meant and besides, they could trust their dad. He loved them. He'd do the right thing.

So Ken kept helping his mother put the babies to sleep, Osamu put things together for the babies, and made lunches. And their father was absent often, but he didn't take his time off like he was supposed to.

Still, he wasn't ready to be woken so early. It was still dark out, and everything was kind of quiet. He glimpsed his mother's face, looking wan.

"Up you get, Ken-chan," she said gently. One of the babies, Mitsuki, he thinks, is asleep over her shoulder. "Pack your most important things, quickly now. We don't have much time."

Ken sat up and rubbed his eyes. "What's goin' on?" he mumbles.

"We have to go," His mother said simply. "I'm sorry Ken-chan. There's not much else I can tell you, now. You have to pack. Your brother took care of your clothes already, don't worry. Get the things you love."

"Are we going on a trip?"

"Of a sort." Ken tilted his head. Did his mother sound… upset? "Hurry now."

Ken slid out of bed and went to his things, looking at them with as serious thought as he could muster. His school things, for certain. Five wasn't very far away for him, and he wanted to be ready. So he took his schoolbag, neatly prepared and packed with his favorite pencils and pens and notebooks. His primers. He picked up his one extra pillow and, after a moment of thought, picked up his comfiest blanket and put the items onto it except for his schoolbag because he could carry that.

At some point, his mother had left the room and his brother had come into it. Osamu-nii-san watched him as he hesitantly unplugged his nightlight because well, how long would they be gone? As he picked up his Gameboy, Osamu said quietly, "You should bring Toto and your bubble stuff."

Ken blinked at his brother, baffled and too sleepy to be angry. "Are we gonna be gone that long?"

"I think so." His brother was always stiff, but this seemed more than usual. "They've been fighting a bunch, you know."

"No, I don't," Ken said, cheeks flaming. "The babies are a bunch of stuff."

Osamu made a sound. It was something like laughing. His brother didn't laugh much, and hearing it now made Ken's shoulders droop. Cause it wasn't a laugh that he liked.

Ken looked at the shelf, where the shelf and scissors and bubbles, and one of his one favorite stuffed animals, Toto the kitten. He put them on his blanket. Osamu came up beside him and slipped the bubbles into a part of Ken's bag. "So they can't spill," he told him.

Ken nodded. His brother really was smart. He should have thought of that.

Osamu examined his brother's part of the room critically, tapping his chin (like papa did sometimes). Then he strode over to the bookshelf and grabbed a few more things.

It was then that Ken snapped awake, as something clicked into place in his memories that should not have because he'd always seen it.

Sometime last year, his brother had won a really big contest with some bunch of money. Osamu had been the youngest winner and… things had happened. Ken didn't remember much of it, but he remembered most of the money had gone away, been put somewhere. The rest Osamu had taken the train to somewhere called Akihabara. Three days later, he'd started making something on his desk, and then, within a month or so, Osamu had had a computer. A nice laptop he thought his dad had said, rather choked up.

This was the first time Ken hadn't seen it on that desk.

"I packed it," Osamu said. "Don't worry."

But now Ken _was_ worried. His brother didn't like taking the laptop outside ever.

So were they gonna be gone _that long_?

"It's okay Ken," said his brother.

Ken had never felt so not-okay ever.

* * *

Osamu set Ken's bundle down with the rest of the small boxes. Most of them were labeled, things like "storage" and "kids" and "for the car" or other things he couldn't see. None of the kitchen stuff was packed, but there were sticky notes all over it and the furniture. He didn't stop to inspect it, dad had gotten cross when he'd tried. Osamu learned quickly.

"Are those Ken-chan's things?" Dad moved over to pick up another box. They seemed to be ignoring most of the boxes, going for his and Ken's and the baby bag.

Osamu nodded sharply.

"Excellent. Tell Ken to wrap up then go help your mother. The babies are still sleeping but it won't last. And she'll need you to get the screws out of the crib."

Osamu obeyed and did not think of what that might mean. He didn't have to.

Eventually, they were all piled into a van, a freshly cleaned rental with those ugly pine air fresheners on the mirror. Osamu settled next to the baby car seats, a holt of discomfort racing up his spine as he looked at them. _Did they keep those things?_ He wondered. He hadn't been in a car seat since Ken was born and they'd gone on a camping trip because those were for babies who couldn't hold their heads, and Osamu was _not_ a baby. It would be just like his parents to keep old stuff because they liked it.

Osamu hadn't. It _itched_. He could only imagine what it felt like to the two, thankfully still sleeping, babies.

Ken was sidled on the other side, already nearly asleep once more. His parents were whispering back and forth to each other in what they probably thought were low voices, but Osamu wasn't asleep. He could hear them just fine.

"I can't believe you rented a car…"

"Something had to be traceable," he muttered. "Better the car than the kids."

Traceable? Were they being followed? Osamu lacked Ken's sheer imagination, but it was easy to guess that something was wrong and it had been wrong for days now, since…

Since the babies. Or, if he was more accurate, the hospital. There was no way it could be about babies.

Something about the hospital. The babies made dad happy, and mom too, no matter how tired they were at the end of the day. So it wasn't just that.

Something must have happened there.

The streets were quiet still, even though it was so early, there were usually _some_ people about. Even when dad took a late shift every now and again.

A part of the city had been blown up the other day right? Or something.

Osamu didn't know, and at some point, it didn't really matter to him. He was still seven and it was quite late for a child and he was still tired, even if Ken didn't think it would be for him. Within minutes of driving away from home, he was asleep, leaving his old life behind and what, at first glance, would be a fun vacation.

It wasn't.

He stirred when the car rolled to a stop. Osamu opened his eyes to see that they were outside of a large mansion, the apartments stretching high overhead. His sleepy frown deepened. Mom didn't have any family, she had said, rather sadly once, and Dad didn't talk to his, but there was no way they'd take a journey across town just to another mansion unless they were moving.

And it really, _really_ didn't feel like they were moving. It felt… worse. And mom and dad would have said something.

Osamu watched as his parents stepped out of the car. He unbuckled himself, slowly, as if delaying the inevitable. He caught his mother's smile and the tears in the corners of her eyes.

Maybe she didn't want to do whatever this was, but that didn't mean she wasn't doing it. Still, he obediently took one of his sisters, and let his mom take the other. The baby blinked at him, big-eyed and solemn. Or as sober as a baby could be.

"No fussing right now, huh Mirei?" he asked her, and only met a confused face in turn.

Ken stumbled out after their mother, who had Mitsuki still dozing in her grip.

"You need to sleep more," he told her. He almost scowled to himself. He was talking to a baby, she didn't even know what sounds were yet, or who he was.

Yet… she kept looking at him like she understood him.

Maybe his classmates were right. Maybe he _did_ need some friends.

_Wait… that book said talking to babies was good._

"Osamu." His father's voice came from far away, towards the entrance of the mansion. Ken was holding his hand and yawning, his mother's face was almost stone the tears were gone so quickly.

Osamu gave the baby a face of distaste. "They like to leave me behind you know," he told her.

Mirei burbled.

"I knew I could count on you," he said and hurried on.

The woman at the counter looked at him with grumpy dislike. That was fair. It was like: four in the morning. But she let them pass anyway and up the elevator, they went. Ken kept yawning. Mom was twitchy, as she always was in elevators. (she'd always hated small spaces. Osamu figured if she wasn't holding Mitsuki she'd take the stairs. That was too much bouncing.) Dad was staring at the doors like they were going to pounce out and eat them. What was going on?

Finally, it reached the proper floor for whatever, and dad led them out and down the hall. Osamu shivered. It was kinda cold.

"Almost there, Osamu-chan," mom said softly.

"Where?" he finally ventured to ask.

His mother made a sound of discontent but did not answer.

His father, ahead of them half a meter, reached a door and rang the bell. There was silence for a while, and dad's thumb was neatly prepared to push again.

Then a familiar face opened the door, wide awake and mild-mannered.

"Oh," said the nurse from the hospital. "Well, this is a surprise. I thought you'd been having a go at me, Matthew."

Osamu watched his father's face contort. "Draven, please," he said. "Please, you're the only one we can ask."

'Draven' looked at them all, thoughts warring over his face.

"Why don't you come in?" he finally said. "My wife is putting the little ones down. We can get your children settled."

Ken, finally awake enough to talk, said, "Hello mister nurse! Do you live here?"

He was met with a warm smile. "Indeed I do."

And suddenly, Osamu understood everything. His eyes narrowed, his whole being trembled, and he clutched baby Mirei tighter, even as she started to fuss in his grip.

"I hate you," he said with full fury and strode inside.

He didn't see his parents' faces, and honestly, he didn't need to.

He knew what being abandoned looked like.

**Author's Note:**

> PRIZE FIC PRIZE FIC PRIZE FIC. This is remi's prize fic leading up to me being... me and not having self-control. RIP. Anyway I hope you enjoy your prize. It will be updated slowly as I'm doing some trimming ahead of time.


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